Virgin Islands Real Estate Trends

The first website is www.64west.com, and it centers on what services are available at its Global Crossing facility located on the northern shore of St. Croix, David Zumwalt, Tech Park's executive director, said Thursday at a press conference.

In April 2008, the Tech Park spent about $2.6 million to secure a 15-year lease for space and bandwidth in the Global Crossing fiber optic hub that funnels a tremendous amount of data traversing the western hemisphere.

In addition to access to ultra-high bandwith, the Tech Park has signed contracts with three "strategic partners" - Tropical Towers Inc., Baltimore Technology Park, doing business as Adveniat, and JetPay - to provide telecommunications, web hosting and other data center services and transaction processing services.

As part of its marketing efforts of these services, the Tech Park established the brand name "64 West," which is derived from the location of the Virgin Islands: 64 west longitude.

The second web site is www.ecommerceisland.com and its focus is on the tax incentives available through the Tech Park's subsidiary UVI Tech Park Protected Cell Corp.

Under V.I. law, the subsidiary can award qualifying companies - which show they can help build a sustainable technology sector and generate revenue for the Tech Park - benefits similar to the tax breaks offered by the territory's Economic Development Commission.

If approved, the companies are designated protected cell companies that are eligible for tax breaks including up to 90 percent reduction in V.I. source income tax liability, and exemptions on property, excise and withholding taxes and customs duties.

Tech Park board chairman Auguste Rimpel Jr. said having the three strategic partners, which are protected cell companies, in place is a major milestone and now the message needs to get out that the park is open for business.

Top executives from the three strategic partners also attended the conference and expressed their support and commitment to the Tech Park.

BTP chairman Tom Cunningham likened the Global Crossing hub as a gold or silver mine for the territory. He said his company already has invested and installed $500,000 in equipment at the Global Crossing facility so far.

There are millions of digital products that companies are selling today from newsletters, services and software, he said.

The Tech Park's overall mission to develop local internships, and training in the technology sector also is critical, he said.

As a former teacher in Belize, Cunningham said that the industry is always changing and there is a constant need for mentoring and teaching.

"This is a great day. We have all the strategic partners in place," said Trent Voigt, chairman of Texas-based Jetpay, which is one the world's larger payment processing corporations for credit card merchants worldwide providing high-speed authorizations, transactions and processing.

Last year, JetPay processed about $17 billion in payments, he said.

JetPay is working with local banks, and the resulting deposits from his company's transactions will be a huge asset to businesses in the territory, he said.

Voigt said that JetPay is deeply committed to customer service and wants to establish a local call center in the Tech Park's proposed 20,000-square-foot office complex on 10 acres of land set aside on the university's St. Croix campus.

The construction of the facility has been slow moving.

On Wednesday, the Tech Park board approved preliminary plans for the building. The facility will cost $9.9 million, but the Tech Park has only $7.5 million in its coffers at this time.

Tech Park management will seek additional money through federal agencies and programs slated to get large chunks of federal stimulus funds earmarked for broadband development.

Tropical Towers is the sister company of Massachusetts-based Atlantic Tele-Network, a publicly traded telecommunications company with more than $388 million in assets, Cornelius Prior, ATN's chairman said."

Hopefully this has a positive effect on island life and our economy. Maybe it's time that the islands moved into the modern age and out of its sometime archaic ways.